• First AI Energy Score: Salesforce, Hugging Face, Cohere, and Carnegie Mellon introduce a standardized tool to measure AI model energy efficiency.
• Industry Transparency: Salesforce commits to disclosing energy efficiency data for its proprietary AI models.
• Market Influence: Recognized by the French Government and Paris Peace Forum, the initiative could drive AI developers toward more sustainable practices.

Salesforce, alongside Hugging Face, Cohere, and Carnegie Mellon University, launched the AI Energy Score—a new benchmarking tool to measure and compare AI model energy consumption. Salesforce is the first AI model developer to disclose its energy efficiency data using this framework.

Why it matters:

AI models consume vast amounts of energy, yet transparency on their environmental impact has been lacking. The AI Energy Score provides a clear, standardized metric—similar to the ENERGY STAR rating for appliances—to drive sustainable AI development.

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Details:

• Public Leaderboard: Scores 166 models across 10 common AI tasks, including text generation and summarization.
• Benchmarking Portal: Developers can submit open or proprietary models for evaluation.
• Energy Use Label: A 1-to-5-star rating system helps users identify more energy-efficient AI models.

“By creating a trusted benchmark, we can empower businesses and developers to make informed choices about the sustainability of AI,” said a Salesforce spokesperson.

Salesforce’s Sustainable AI Approach

Salesforce embeds sustainability into its AI strategy through Agentforce, its autonomous AI agent framework.

• Optimized Efficiency: Unlike traditional AI training, which is energy-intensive, Agentforce is pre-optimized to minimize resource consumption.
• Smaller, Smarter Models: Uses efficient small language models instead of relying solely on large models, reducing energy use.
• Targeted Performance: Integrates with Salesforce Data Cloud for high accuracy and minimal computational waste.

“Agentforce delivers high performance while minimizing environmental impact, ensuring AI efficiency without unnecessary energy drain,” Salesforce stated.

Looking ahead:

With AI demand surging, the AI Energy Score could set an industry standard for sustainability, pushing companies toward greener, more efficient AI solutions.

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